Draft equalizer



P, p. HELLER. DRAFT EQUALIZEB. APPLICATION mm MAY 26. I921.

Patented Sept. 19, 1922.

s E s s s N w w I TTORNEY Patented Sept. 19, 1922.

,; UNITEDism? es '5 PERRY osean HELLER-0E rnornnrsrown, ILLINOIS.

:[DRAFT EQUALIZER.

A p plieatloni fiIedi Ma -QG To all iphom dame concern; i

. Be it known that I, P RRY 0; eat; a) citizen of the;United State s, residingvat Prophetstown, in the: county of Whites de and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Draft Equaliaer, of which the followinv is a specification.

his inventionrelates to draft equalizers. The object is .to provide agfour horseevener for us principally in eonnection with plows, whereby, one animal may travel in the last furrow made: whilethe remaining three tread, upon unplowed ground, the main evenerbar being ofiminimum length and so located as; to allow thel draw har, togwhieh it is fulcrumed to be attached to the sald plow in such manner asto positionthe plow in properrelationlto the-last furrow.

. Anotherobject isto provide a fourfhorse" evener of this character whichmaybe readily converted into a ii ve horse evener by the 'simple adjustment of i said spreader beam and the addition ofanother, double tree and single tree said change and addition being easily and quickly accomplished with a minimum amount of, work, the entire dev ce being simplej of; construction and easily hitched and capableof be n manur aured ,A, e111 and Complete understandifngef the invention may beobtained from'a consider-I ation of the. followingldetailed, descript on,

taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming, a part of this speeifica ti on; it being understood that while the drawing shows .a' practical form of the' Iin-,

' vention, the lat ter is notconfined; to vstrict conformity therewith, but may ,be or modified solong as such changes or mod fications mark no material departure from the salientfeatures of the invention, as spef.

Figure 3 is I a, seetion jon" line;

igure 4 is a section; on the line, K [i draw bar 1 is ,providedwhiehfis formed of suitable material and eomprises an Q1011? gated bar adapted to be arranged longitudi with the beam or aplow or other implement nally iof the line oi draft in'alinement (not shovvn). [This draw bar 1 may be [in the form of a single .bar, orit may comprise a pair of barsarrangedone abovethe other,

and carries at its rear. or inner, end an at taching plate orclevls 2 provided with a serieso-f apertures 3 for the attachment of the; device to the. beam of the implement, as will be clearly understood, itbeing preferable to attach the same by means of two. bolts to v the end-of the beam, so thatthedraw bar may be rigidly secured thereto. 4 3

,At a point substantially midway of the length {or the vdraw. bar, a main evener beam 4 is fulerumed bymeans ofa bolt 5,the said evener "beam "being either v arranged beneath posed of onlyoiie member, or betweenthe the event the same is of the doiiblefiormation. 1 v P The pivotal bolt' ,5 is arranged considerably to oneside of the center .o f the evener the drawbar in the ,event the samejiscomi spaced upper and lower members thereof, 1n.

beam l which provides are greaterextem slon ofbthe same 111 a direction'away from 1 the last furrow formed than up'onlthe side adjacent to said furrow,'.and thefdrawcba'r' extends forwardly'in advance of'the pivotalbolt 5 where it is provided with a suitable aperture for the bolt 6 arranged inflongi tudinal alinement with the bolt 5 for a-pnrposedtobeexplained."' Y ,j j

, Theinain, evener beam 4 is adapted to freely swing about fits fulcrum bolt 5, and the shorter end thereofl'orj the end adjacent to provided with a] suitable aperture acent I to its terminal for the reeeptio'n of a vertically diSposedboltY to ,whichji's pivoted upper and lower spaced links 8 arranged upon the upper and lower, sides eithe even'er' beam 4 and extendin'g forwardly insubstantial ly parallel relation tov the forward "extension of the draw bar andfsomewhat beyond, the front terminal thereof, where,- they are adapted to receive 1 v v i between their terminals a double treedpiv- Y "Thedouble tree 9 is 'equipped at 1 with an ordinary single tree, the single tree ll at the outer end, orthat ,fart-hestremoved from'the, draw bar l being adapted to lie] immediately over" ,the last furrow/ made, I

while the single tree 12, carried by the other or inner end of the doubletree9; is substantially in front of the I draw bar and in position to allow the animal hitched thereto to travel upon the unplowed ground adjacent to the furrow, the attached plow (not shown) being in proper position to turn the soil im: mediately in rear of such animal and to throw the same into the last furrow, in the usual manner. 7

In the arrangement described, the ends of the doubletree 9 are equal in length, that is to say, the pivotal bolt 10 traverses an aperture in the same located at the center thereof, and an additional aperture 9 is provided at a point between the bolt 10 and the outer end thereof, for a purpose to be explained.

The main evener beam 4, at its opposite or longer end, is provided with a pair of spaced apertures 4 the innermost one of which, in the arrangement shown in Fig. 1, receives a bolt 13, upon which are fulcrumed a pair of links 1 1 which, together with'their links 8, may be formed of ordinary strap iron of the desired length.

The links 14 are adapted'to extend forwardly and outwardly, at an angle, and have their outer ends aper'tured for the reception of a bolt 15, which is in alinement with the bolt 6, transversely of the line of draft, and the bolts 6 and 15 are adapted to traverse apertures in a spreader bar 16, which is thus held in substantially parallel relation to the main evener beam 1, and which extends outwardly beyondthe' bolt 15, the latter traversing, in the present arrangement, the innermost of a pair of apertures 16 formed in the outer portion of the spreader bar.

By reason of its connection to the rigid forward extension of the draw bar 1, and

the fact that the spreader bar 16-is thus held in parallel relation to the evener 4, it

will be seen that the links 14 cannot swing about the bolts 13 or 15, The bolt 15 is also adapted to connect to the spreader bar the rear endsof metallic links 17, which are somewhat shorter than the aforesaid links 8 and have pivotally mounted between their forward ends a doubletree 18 carrying at its ends single trees 19 and 20, respectively. With the links 14 arranged as described, the active leverage or pull of the team of horses attached to the single trees 19 and 20, is substantially equal to that of the other team hitched to the singletrees' 11 and 12, and allows of the outermost animal passing along the last furrow and the plow to assume the proper position with relation to the latter, the remaining three animals having the unplowed' ground beneath them. In other words, with this arrangement, there is onehorse immediately in front of the plow, with one to one side and two to the other, and yet the draft of each is equalized and'theplow drawn evenly through the ground.

v wh it is desired to adjust the device fo use in connection with five animals, the rear ends of the links 14 are connected by the bolt 13 to the outermost aperture 4 of the evener beam 4; thus materially increasing the leverage of the same. The forward ends of the links 14 are then connected by the bolt 15 to the outermost aperture 16 of the spreader bar 16, and the links 17 likewise shifted, which removes the doubletree 18 and attached single trees 19 and 20, farther away from the line of draft of the draw bar 1, and provides room for an additional animal to be placed. In addition to this, the bolt 10 connecting the links 8 to the doubletree 9, is shifted from the innermost to the outermost of a pair of apertures 9 formed therein for the purpose, thus increasing the leverage of the inner end of the doubletree 9, which thus becomes an evener bar, the

single tree 12 remaining in position at thev inner, longer end thereof, "while the outer single tree" 11 isremoved, a double tree 21, carrying the outer and inner single trees 22 and 23, respectively, is then attached in place of the single tree 11.

With this latter arrangement, five animals,

are hitched to the plow substantially abreast, with that animal connected to the single tree'22 walking in the last furrow,

the remaining four being upon the unplowed ground. hitched to'the single trees 19 and 20 exert increased pullon the evener beam 4: by reason of the change in position of the bolt 13, and the draft of' the same is substantially equal to that of the remaining three animals connected to the single trees '12, 22 and 23.

Likewise the draft exerted upon the single tree 12 is equalized to that of'thesingle trees '22 and 23, through the aforesaid change in the location of the bolt 10.

From the foregoing it w1ll be seen that a simple, easily attached and cheaply manu- The team' of animals factured draft equalizer has been provided which may be readily converted from a four to a five horse equalizer and which permits in either arrangement of one animal walking in the last furrow while the remaining animals walk upon unplowed ground, and that the plow is always in a position to turn the ground in the/proper line adjacent to said furrow the provision of the plurality of apertures 3 in the connecting plate or clevis of the draw bar facilitating such alinement, for by adjusting the bolt's 'connecting thesame to the front end of the plow beam, the plow beam may be shifted slightly with relationto the line of draft, as will be clearly understood. What is claimed is: v In a draft equalizer, the combination of a longitudinally-disposed draw bar, a transverse evener beam pivoted midway of the length of the draw bar and at one sideof the longitudinal center of said beam, a

spreader bar arranged in advance of the evener beam and pivoted at its inner end to the forward end of the draw bar, a pair of links pivotally connected to the short end of the evener beam, a doubletree pivotally connected to the forward end of the said links and carrying singletrees, another pair of links pivotally connected to the long end of the evener beam and the outer end of the spreader bar, said evener beam and spreader bar having additional apertures at their outer ends whereby the'position of the lastmentioned links may be shifted, said links assuming an inclined position in both of their adjusted positions, and another double ture.

PERRY OSCAR HELLER. 

